Tag Archives: corruption

Hundreds of millions of pounds in overseas aid is lost to fraud every year undetected by the Department for International Development, an auditors’ report suggests.

Only 0.03 per cent of the £10 billion a year spent on aid is recorded as fraudulent by the department run by Priti Patel, even though it sends money to many of the world’s most corrupt countries. The implausibility of such low levels of fraud is spelt out by the National Audit Office in a report on waste in the aid budget.

Although the auditors do not attempt to quantify the scale of unreported fraud, they highlight that other agencies and departments admit to significantly higher levels of misused money. HMRC admits that 3 per cent of its budget is lost through fraud and the Department for Work and Pensions puts its fraud losses at 0.7 per cent. Both operate in Britain, considered one of…

It turns out that the toys inside the Kinder chocolate eggs are made by child labour in Romania according to an investigation by the Sunnewspaper.

Families in this, one of the poorest of the EU countries are being paid as little as 20p an hour for making the toys at home.

Child exploitation is not new in Romania. It is probably as famous for sending gangs of child pickpockets to the UK as it is for being the home of Vlad the Impaler.

Apart from the child exploitation experts say there is also a risk of food poisoning if the toys have been assembled in unsanitary conditions.

A whistleblower said “Customers would expect products which go inside children’s chocolates to be made in controlled conditions but so many of the toys are being made in peoples homes that effective quality control is impossible”.

“Ferrero (the Italian chocolatier that makes the eggs) may not be getting what they pay for and middle men somewhere must be making a killing off the back of people being treated like slaves“. What, corruption in the EU?

The eggs and toy parts are supplied by Romexa SA a Ferrero contractor. The Sun’s investigation revealed that Romexa’s boss Daniel Muran is a millionaire living in a fabulous mansion. He said “this is the first I have heard of it but I will find out who is responsible and the factories involved will have their contracts terminated if this is found to be true”. He is currently under investigation by the Romanian authorities

Ferrero said it banned the use of children in factories and that its suppliers had passed a strict audit inspection this year. “All our suppliers are subject to regular independent checks to ensure that they observe the terms of our strict code of conduct. We will investigate these new allegations fully in order to ensure that our code of conduct is being strictly observed“.

Well there are strict inspections and corrupt EU inspections I guess. Also they seem to be missing the point that these toys are being assembled by homeworkers rather than in factories and so are unlikely to be inspected.

One family of five, including children of six years of age, who were all involved in making the toys told the newspaper that they were paid the equivalent of just under £4 for every 1,000 completed eggs they delivered to a factory in Carei, near the border with Hungary.

The father felt they had no choice despite the terrible pay as they needed money to feed the children. He complained about their living conditions and used it as a reason for their dream to come to the UK. Perhaps if their country wasn’t so corrupt – it is he fourth most corrupt country in the EU after Bulgaria and Italy, and equal with Greece – people might have a fairer chance of earning a decent living.

Robert Mugabe who has single-handedly reduced Zimbabwe to a state of abject poverty and corruption

Britain’s foreign aid budget keeps rising. Currently at £12 billion a year, it is due to soar during David Cameron’s two terms as Prime Minister, to £16 billion by 2020. As the Daily Mail revealed yesterday, Britain pays £1 in every £7 of aid donated by rich countries — three times as much per head as the U.S. — and much of it is being sent to the world’s most corrupt countries where despots line their own pockets and make life even worse for the poor.

Among the most egregious recent examples was South Africa, where — even as our Government gave the country £19 million a year to alleviate poverty — its president Jacob Zuma was spending £13 million of state funds improving his lavish home. Ministers have stopped direct aid to South Africa since…

Britain’s foreign aid budget is now so swollen it accounts for £1 in every £7 given by rich countries. A global study shows the 28 leading industrialised nations handed out £86billion between them last year

The latest figures – from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development – show this target was exceeded last year, hitting 0.71 per cent. That was more than double the 0.3 per cent average of the 28 OECD nations. The UK gave twice as much as France, which has a similar population.

Britain spends three times as much per head as the US, whose population of 332million means it gave £61 per person last year. The UK, with 65million people, gave £188 a head. The Daily Mail has campaigned against the waste of billions of pounds in foreign aid, highlighting a number of scandals, including:

Transparency International’s latest report shows that Europe would be the most honest continent if it weren’t for widespread corruption in Italy and neighbouring countries.

Italy is less honest than Qatar (no surprise there considering FIFA’s involvement) Ghana or Saudi Arabia.

Britain comes joint 10th with Germany

Top of the pile? Denmark, Finland and Sweden with the Danes scoring 91 out of a 100.

At the other end of the scale is Somalia and North Korea, joint bottom with just 8 points.

To be like Denmark “you need an independent parliament, free media and law enforcement among other factors” according to Transparency International’s Europe and Central Asia director.

We may be 10th and above the USA (16th), France (23rd), Spain (36th) and Italy (61st) but Britain is seen as a safe haven for money laundering and political financing is less than transparent.

Italy tied with Lesotho after another year of bribery scandals and is seen to be “floundering behind countries generally seen as corrupt such as Romania and Greece”. Italy has plenty of anti-corruption legislation but doesn’t enforce it.

Spain dropped several places after various political scandals and Ireland suffered after the way it treated police officers who tried to expose corrupt colleagues.

Top most honest countries

1 Denmark

2 Finland

3 Sweden

4 New Zealand

=5 Netherlands/Norway

7 Switzerland

8 Singapore

9 Canada

10 UK/Germany

Most corrupt countries

119 Russia

161 Iraq/Libya

166 Afghanistan

=167 North Korea/Somalia

It’s a pity the EU isn’t included as it now admits that half of the money they disburse is siphoned off illegally and they haven’t had their accounts approved for years.

Transparency International has published its 2014 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), which ranked 175 countries and territories based on how corrupt their administrative and political institutions are perceived to be on a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).

Compiled from a combination of surveys and assessments of “the abuse of entrusted power for private gain,” the CPI is the most widely used indicator of corruption worldwide.

Here are the 17 most corrupt countries, according to the index:

The lowest ranked countries are perceived as “plagued by poor governance, and untrustworthy and badly functioning public institutions like police or media.”

The four least corrupt countries are Denmark (92), New Zealand (91), Finland (89), and Sweden (87), while the US came in 17th — along with Barbados, Hong Kong, and Ireland — with a rating of 74.

Top performers are found to have “high levels of press freedom, open budget…

One person in four has paid a bribe to a public body in the last year, according to a survey carried out in 95 countries by Transparency International.

The poor record of some African nations on bribery stands out. Sierra Leone has the highest number of respondents admitting to having paid a bribe – 84% – and seven out of nine of the countries with the highest reported bribery rate are in sub-Saharan Africa. See the list below. The countries with the lowest reported bribery rate are Denmark, Finland, Japan and Australia, they all have a bribery rate of 1%.